U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,461,812; 4,488,370; and 5,459,957 disclose gun safety systems, and are all hereby incorporated herein by reference.
Firearm (e.g. gun) safety is a worldwide concern. Standard in many weapons is a thumb safety and/or grip safety which reduces unintentional firearm discharges. Thumb safeties may operate by manually shifting a safety lever from a safe position to a fire position. Grip safeties may be automatically shifted to fire positions when a user's hand engages the stock of the weapon or even the trigger of the weapon. Neither of these types of safety mechanisms is completely effective to prevent the unauthorized use of a firearm, and thus have proven unsatisfactory in dealing with a variety of safety concerns. Moreover, these prior art systems cannot prevent stolen, or select, weapons from being discharged.
A concern of law enforcement officials is the prevention of law enforcement officers being shot at or killed with an officer's own service weapon. Another concern is firearms of any type being utilized against law enforcement officers. Another concern is the exportation from the United States of U.S. made firearms which ultimately become used against U.S. troops or citizens in foreign countries. For example, it would be undesirable if foreign militaries or terrorists were able to acquire and use U.S. made weapons against U.S. soldiers or U.S. citizens.
There have been prior art attempts to make a weapon operable only by specific authorized users. Some prior art devices require that the user wear a special signal generating (i.e. active) component, such as a ring, bracelet, or glove. In these devices, the firing mechanism will only operate in the presence of a signal generated by the active device. Such devices are deficient for a number of reasons. The active components are cumbersome and uncomfortable to wear, thereby decreasing user acceptance and making the system less reliable. Additionally, the devices are not unique to a given user or a given geographical area because the weapon can still be operated by anyone who has the required signal generator in any area of the world. Another problem is that a firearm cannot be quickly enabled if the user is not presently wearing, or loses, the signal generating device.
In view of the above, it is apparent that there exists a need in the art for police authorities or governmental authorities to be capable of remotely activating and/or deactivating particular or select firearms in different geographical areas around the world. There also exists a need in the art for police or law enforcement officers to be capable of remotely activating or deactivating weapons which may be utilized against them, on short notice.
It is a purpose of this invention to fulfill the above-described needs in the art, as well as other needs which will become apparent to the skilled artisan from the following detailed description of this invention.